1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the field of roller skates and, particularly, to an improved skate with canted, large diameter wheels.
2. Prior Art
Various designs of roller skates have been developed over the years. At the present time, "in-line" skates are particularly popular. This type of skate has a plurality of small-diameter wheels aligned in a longitudinal direction beneath the sole of the skater's foot. A number of advantages are claimed for this design of a skate. However, the small diameter of the wheels inherently limits the speed that can be achieved and limits the use of the skates to relatively smooth surfaces.
Among alternative skate designs, skates with large-diameter wheels have been proposed for over a century. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 89,833 discloses a skate with a single wheel of large diameter for use in skating on fields and other uneven surfaces. This skate, and many similar prior art designs, places the wheel to the outside of the skater's foot. While this allows a lower center of gravity than if the wheel were to be located entirely below the skater's foot, undue strain is placed on the skater's ankles because of the lateral offset between the center line of the skater's foot and the point of contact between the wheel and the ground. One solution to this problem is to mount the wheel at an angle with respect to vertical so that the point of contact with the ground will be directly below the skater's foot. Such a design for a single-wheeled skate is shown, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 2,931,012.
Single-wheeled skates are, of course, inherently unstable. A design for a skate with two large diameter wheels is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,885,804 to Cudmore. In this design, two large, canted, equal-sized wheels are mounted on axles extending outwardly from a rigid sole-plate. As disclosed by Cudmore, the canted wheels contact the ground directly beneath the center line of the sole-plate. The wheels are dished with their concave sides facing toward the sole-plate so that a portion of the sole-plate extends into the wheel concavities to permit the sole-plate to be positioned very close to the ground. Cudmore's design provides a reasonably stable skate in comparison to many of the prior art designs; however, development of the present invention has yielded improved stability and responsiveness over the design of Cudmore. Furthermore, the dished wheels used by Cudmore to achieve a low center of gravity inherently limit the ability to turn sharply since the outside surfaces of the wheels will contact the ground when the skate leans in a sharp turn. The present invention overcomes this disadvantage by positioning the wheels so that dishing is not necessary to achieve an acceptably low center of gravity.